Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin is at Roosevelt University's Gage Gallery through June 30, 2011.

Buffalo, New York-based photographer, Milton Rogovin, 101, had died just two days before the long-planned exhibition, turning the celebration of his art into a celebration of his life.

Exhibit curator and gallery director Michael Ensdorf said the opening is a "celebration of Milton's rich and long life. He said tributes from all over the world came pouring in for Rogovin, on Twitter, Facebook, New York Times, NPR and the Library of Congress blog.

Mark Rogovin, an artist and activist whose accomplishments include founding The Peace Museum, was visibly moved by the outpouring of support, while mourning the death of his father.

“This is not a good film – It’s a great film. I hope people see it all around the world. This movie could change the world.” -Pete Seeger

“The rich have their own photographers. I photograph the forgotten ones.” -Milton Rogovin

Introduction by Mark Rogovin

As a practicing optometrist, and after an assault by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Milton Rogovin began his second career as a social documentary photographer in 1957. His subjects spanned the Storefront Churches of Buffalo, Pablo Neruda’s Chile, the Family of Miners, Working People, the Yemeni and Native American community and the Lower West Side, a Buffalo neighborhood where Milton Rogovin photographed families for thirty years.
Mark Rogovin was an assistant to Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros on his last mural, the March of Humanity. He founded the Public Art Workshop, and co-founded the Peace Museum. Mark now heads the Rogovin Collection with a mission to promote the educational use of the social documentary photography of his father, Milton Rogovin.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

You are invited to celebrate the life and work of Milton Rogovin at a memorial for the late photographer, Saturday, May 21, 2011, from 2 - 3:30pm. The memorial service will be held at Upton Hall, Warren Enters Auditorium, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY. A reception will follow. No RSVP required, open to the public.

This short film celebrates the life's work of photographer Milton Rogovin, who was 93 when this film was shot. After being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and subsequently losing his optometry practice, Rogovin dedicated his life to photographing the residents of a depressed six-block area in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Rogovin's first series of portraits of Lower West Side residents was completed in 1972. Over the next twenty years, Rogovin returned two more times to re-photograph his subjects. The film follows him as he returns one more time to the Lower West Side to take a fourth in his series of once-a-decade portraits.

In related news, The Working Class Eye of Milton Rogovin, opened this January, 2011 and will be on view at Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University in Chicago, through June 30th.